10 Fighting Games WIth Best Comeback Mechanics, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Masters of older fighting games must utilize limited comeback mechanics like Fatal Blows or Awakening to level the playing field against opponents.
• Improved fighting games like DNF Duel incorporate unique Awakening mechanics for diverse gameplay, allowing players to customize and enhance character abilities.
• Games like Tekken 8 introduce innovative Heat Systems to enhance aggression, offering unpredictable results and challenging defensive playstyles with rage features.

Fighting games can be among the hardest to master due to their complicated design. There are a lot of rules to manage during matches against other humans, especially for newcomers. It’s demotivating when facing an opponent that completely overwhelms the battle in their favor. It happens frequently in older titles that were more standard and simplistic, like Street Fighter 2 and Tekken 2.

Comebacks are almost impossible in older fighting games due to their overwhelming advantage, especially when dealing with chip damage KOs. As fighting games evolve, the developers respond by including more last-resort options to raise motivation to fight at a disadvantage. The comeback mechanics are better used during critical conditions, granting stat buffs, more combo routes, or damaging ultimate. They’re designed to shorten the advantage gap between players, diminishing the overwhelming stress.

10 Mortal Kombat 1

A Painful Blow

Fatal Blows is Mortal Kombat 1’s comeback mechanic, and it plays similarly to X-Ray attacks, an ultimate attack that requires a full super meter. After Mortal Kombat 10, the option changed to become more of a last resort for Mortal Kombat 11 and onward.

The utility is pretty standard since Fatal Blow becomes accessible whenever a user reaches below the 30% health threshold. It’s an ultimate attack dealing painful damage to an opponent, but the drawback is that it’s disabled for the remaining round(s). Its use will be locked for the rest of the match set when hitting an opponent, so whiffing or getting blocked will only disable it temporarily. Unlike X-ray attacks with multiple usages, Fatal Blows are limited, making players hold them crucially as a last resort.

9 DNF Duel

Class Awakening

Dungeon Fighter Online had several mechanics creatively implemented in its fighting game counterpart, DNF Duel. The most effective mechanic is Awakening, a status that grants passive buffs and access to ultimate skills. Awakening buffs and skills are unique to each character, such as Hitman’s cancelable MP skill or Ghostblade’s enhanced Ghost skills.

Clear and Gold Cubes are two types of Awakenings in its cube system, similar to the Garou: Mark of the Wolves’ POW meter:

• The Gold Cube is a riskier Awakening that activates at 30% health but unlocks stronger buffs (like Berserker’s damage-based heal).
• The Clear Cube is a safer Awakening that activates at 50% health, but its passive buffs are weaker (like Berserker’s increased movement and MP regeneration replacing damage healing).

This system allows players to craft the perfect class fighter with the ideal play style.

8 Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections

Awakening The Beast

Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections has the largest roster of ninjas to fight with their whole kit, including their Awakening abilities. When a fighter loses more than half their health, they can charge to an awakened powered-up state that buffs their damage and ninja dash. Some awakenings can even change the user’s form, giving them new jutsu and combos. They can even become giants like the Tailed Beasts and Susanoo.

There are consequences when using awakening. An awakened ninja can’t use ultimate jutsu during the form. If the Awakening ends before the round, the user is forced into an exhaustive state, lowering their stats. Some powered-down states are more hindering for some ninjas, immobilizing them completely like Naruto after using Baryon mode. It can be used again after going into a huge cooldown, so it’s better to end the match quickly before its drawbacks occur, similar to some anime fights.

7 Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Unlocking One’s True Self

Awakening is the full potential for normal humans to unlock in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. It only activates when the fighter reaches below 35% health and stands actionable, giving the awakened user:

• 40% defense buff
• 100 SP gain for SP-cost moves like a super skill
• increased SP gauge limit
• unlocked super skills like Akihiko’s Maziodyne

Awakening won’t auto-activate unless both requirements are fulfilled, which proves fatal when caught in a big damaging combo. Awakenings can be forced out by using self-damage actions like Furious Action and Super Cancel. Only normal users can awake, whereas shadow counterparts can’t. It gives the player one more chance to take down the opponent.

6 Street Fighter 5

Trigger To Comeback

Street Fighter 5 was a unique entry that introduced V-Trigger as a universal mechanic to increase character utility. The V-Trigger system gave fighters access to extra beneficial moves and/or stat buffs. Each fighter can choose one of two V-triggers, improving the playstyle variety. It’s activated when filling up a meter, which can be as high as three bars to the minimum of Dan’s one bar.

How a V-Trigger works is character-dependent, such as Ryu using his V-Trigger I multiple times in one activation or his V-Trigger II once in one activation. After activation for most of the cast, the meter depletes gradually before use, while a few like Luke and Necalli will do the opposite. While SF 4 gave a more standard comeback with Ultras, the V-Trigger system gave more depth to characters’ kits.

5 BlazBlue Crosstag Battle

Resonance For A Comrade

BlazBlue Crosstag Battle is a miraculous crossover with multiple ArcSys series joining in a 2v2 tag battle, along with RWBY. Any character can party up in a duo, though some teams have special interactions to showcase different bonds, including some loathing tensions. No matter the relationship, a downed teammate encourages the lone fighter to access Resonance Blaze, a powered-up state with several perks:

• Recoverable health regeneration
• Gradual skill meter gain
• Improved chip damage from attack normals
• Cancelable specials into distortion skills and Astral Heat
• Enhanced properties of distortion skills

The mode only lasts 15 seconds, though the match timer is frozen for the user to strategize a favorable advantage. How the user utilizes their teammate will improve the resonance levels, enhancing its effectiveness between level 1 to level 4. Maxing out the resonance level unlocks Astral Heat, the ultimate instant KO move that requires a full 9-skill meter. This feature showcases how an ideal team is to work together and how they can use that power to the fullest.

4 Samurai Shodown

Patiently Enraged

Rage is an essential mechanic in Samurai Shodown that can change the slow, patient match instantly. After taking enough damage or using Just Defend, Max Rage activates to apply enhanced stats and unlock the weapon-flipping technique. The powered-up state is safer for the user’s benefits while gaining a chance to hinder the opponent’s attacks, exposing them. Using the rage skill will deplete the bar, ending its benefits until Rage gets full again.

Rage Explosion is another form of Rage at a riskier cost. This can be used anytime in the match with the Max Rage benefits and an additional move, the Lightning Blade Technique. This art is a quick move that can slice through the opponent for massive damage, though it’s very punishable on whiff and block. Using any rage techniques will end the ultimate powered state, disabling the Rage resource for the match set. It’s a very high-risk, high-reward option that can greatly change the match pace but backfires when used poorly. It’s only used as a precaution when finding an opponent’s opening to take the round.

3 Tekken 8

Heated Rage

Rage is Tekken’s staple feature that returns in Tekken 8 as its comeback feature. When a fighter loses over 70% health, they automatically gain a 10% attack buff and access to their ultimate move, Rage Art. It’s been effective as an aggressive option since Tekken 6; however, it’s implemented along with Tekken 8‘s new Heat System.

Heat is a universal mode that activates anytime once during the match round. Once active, the chains are broken for the fighter to utilize their enhanced properties, such as Paul’s improved Phoenix Smasher or Kazuya’s unlocked devil abilities. Heat rewards aggressive playstyles, such as recovering chip health during attacks. It generally lasts 10 seconds unless the player applies more pressure on the opponent, lengthening the duration. This gives more time to use heat techniques like heat smash for damage or heat dash for safer advantage.

Tekken has always been about aggression, though heat is meant to fix the defensive, slower playstyles in Tekken 7. The match’s results are unpredictable when properly utilizing the heat and rage resources, becoming the most aggressive comeback mechanic in a fighting game.

2 Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Raging To Smash Bros

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is one of the most rage-inducing Nintendo games since it enrages not just the players, but the character roster as well. Rage is a built-in mechanic that buffs a move’s knockback, making opponents launch further rather than take more damage. It also influences hit stun, linking certain moves better as a true combo.

Rage ,a passive universal system, was introduced in Super Smash Bros Wii U/3DS, and it was brought back for the most recent Smash Bros entry, albeit with improved balance. It can be seen on a fighter as smoke after taking over 100% damage, though its effect applies as early as 35%. The effect builds until 150%, making the user very vulnerable to knockback, but giving the best knockback as well. It’s a subtle benefit with an astounding effect to change the match favor entirely.

1 Dragon Ball Fighterz

Sparking At The Limit Break

During its time, the developers of Dragon Ball Fighterz balanced the main system with more offensive and defensive options. One mechanic that fulfilled both options was Sparking Blast, a powered-up status granting several benefits. When activated, any nearby opponents get launched away from the user that’s buffed with several perks:

• Chip health regeneration
• 20% attack damage buff
• Jump cancelable normals for combos
• Higher ki meter gain rate for super specials
• Cancelable vanish attack for an actionable teleport

The duration can vary depending on the team’s status, giving less time to more active teammates. It’s best used as a last resort to utilize its full duration of about 20 seconds for the lone teammate.

Another comeback mechanic included later in Dragon Ball Fighterz’s support was the limit break. This built-in feature only activates when two teammates are down, giving the lone fighter an extra ki bar, access to link level 1 super to level 3 super, and a 20% damage buff when active. Since this is a 3v3 team game, this greatly helps motivate the losing side to turn the tables during 1v3 scenarios.